Jay Olephant, a University of Massachusetts graduate, created a webpage called University Primetime which offers exclusive information about sporting, nighttime, philanthropy, dining and campus events to individual colleges across the country.
The idea formed from the recent graduate’s desire to avoid the standard 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. job.
“I’d rather make my own money and do my dream. I had great internships with MTV and all of my friends were making fun of me and I was like, ‘just watch me.’ When you put your mind to something and you work hard at it anything is possible,” said Olephant.
In July 2012, Olephant began developing his idea and by August 6, 2012 the first University Primetime post hit Facebook and cultivated 13,000 likes. Olephant created various Facebook pages for different colleges to start promoting his idea and build a fan base for his website.
Olephant’s goal was to create a simple and convenient website for college students after observing that most Facebook events go unnoticed because they are sent in bulk and are often difficult for people to sift through.
“It’s an interesting idea that will allow for a student to be able to go to one place instead of having to look through random Facebook events to find what you’re looking for or make you go to your college website and click on a million tabs just to find the event information you need,” senior Jessica Norville said.
As a source for all college students, the website will be exclusive to individual colleges across the country to announce various pieces of information about that particular campus.
However, the website may also be helpful for high school students during their college search.
“This site is made for anyone who’s in high school, college or alumni. It’s huge for high school students because if you’re a sophomore or junior in high school you can go to this and get an idea of what happens on a daily basis at any college and that could help make a college decision,” said Olephant.
The website can also be helpful for college alumni.
“It’s also big for alumni as well in case you’re visiting the college you can see what’s happening. This will be useful to college students to stay aware and involved in their campus community,” said Olephant.
In order to be aware of the events happening on each campus, Olephant hires college representatives from each school as interns to provide content for each college’s website.
“The best form of advertising is word of mouth. I recruit all campus representatives by getting them interested through Facebook pages. I look students up on Facebook and friend them, I make Facebook statuses and personally IM to inform people that I’m certain this will be the next big thing and encourage them to get involved and help out,” Olephant said.
Olephant also reaches out to many sororities and fraternities at each college since they tend to be highly involved on campus. He does so by making statuses on Facebook, such as, “inbox me any details that are going on at your school,” and has had success receiving feedback from these posts.
“This seems like a really creative and awesome idea for college students. It would be fun for students to be able to get credit while working on a social media job that relates to school, and being able to do it remotely is super convenient,” junior Jill Landi said.
At a rate of 150,00 fans a week on their webpage, University Primetime is quickly gaining the support of students.
“University Primetime definitely seems like it will take off,” junior Tara Dawson said. “I have friends from different colleges helping to promote the website already. It has already gained momentum which is the hardest part about starting a business.”
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mfernan3@ramapo.edu
